After our original convention sponsor, the Seattle P-I, closed early in 2009, and other corporate sponsors proved to be less than forthcoming, Ted went to this individual with his concerns that to not hold a convention in this uncertain climate might be fatal to the organization in the long run.
The person to whom Ted was speaking, Frank Swoboda, head of the Herblock Foundation, did not hesitate to help, tapping a discretionary fund he had access to, and providing the money needed to guarantee the Seattle gathering.
So for that, and for their continuing and unwavering support they have shown the AAEC over the years, this year’s Ink Bottle Award goes to Frank Swoboda and the Herblock Foundation.
“Tom the Dancing Bug,” the weekly comic strip drawn by Ruben Bolling and distributed by Universal Press Syndicate, has been bestowed the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ award for “Best Cartoon.”
The award was announced in a ceremony June 26 at the AAN AltWeekly Awards in Tucson, Ariz. “Tom the Dancing Bug” currently runs in 50 alternative weeklies, as well as on the Web site Salon.com.
In addition, a live-action comedy centering around one of the characters from the strip, “Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children,” is currently in development at New Line Cinema.
Chicago Defender Editorial Cartoonist Tim Jackson has received the 2009 Wilbert L. Holloway Award for Best Editorial Cartoon from the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), also known as the Black Press of America, for the second year in a row.
Jackson received the award on June 26 at the NNPA Merit Awards Dinner, held during the group’s National Convention.
In addition to his work at the Defender, Jackson draws weekly cartoons for a number of newspapers and magazines, including the Madison (Wis.) Times; Capital Outlook, in Tallahassee, Fla.; the Cincinnati Herald and Dayton Defender; Northern Kentucky Herald; and Urban Life Northwest, based in Seattle.
Jackson is currently working on a book of African-American newspaper cartoonists of the early 1900s. It is set to be published sometime next year.
The Chicago Defender also won the 2009 John B. Russwurm Award for Best Newspaper in the Country courtesy of the NNPA.
Jesse Springer has won his second science idol contest. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in August announced that Springer, of Eugene, Ore., won the 2009 “Science Idol: the Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest.” The competition draws attention to the work that must be done for the Obama administration to fulfill its pledge to “restore science to its rightful place.”
Springer, who also won the contest in 2007, is a graphic designer and editorial cartoonist for the Eugene Register-Guard.
Springer’s cartoon depicts a politician who has removed the letters “s-c-i-e-n-c-e” from the words “Endangered Species Act.” The politician says, “There! Now it doesn’t make any sense at all!”
“There’s a lot of room for oversight,” says Springer. “This is a really tricky time for those who hoped that Obama’s election was going to be a start of something new. We need to point out the commitments that President Obama has made and hold his administration accountable to them.”
The Science Idol competition seeks to spark conversation about how to prevent government leaders from censoring, manipulating and distorting scientists’ findings on issues ranging from public health to global warming.
Gary Markstein, a former cartoonist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has taken a buyout offered to 30 members of the newsroom. Another 30 newsroom employees were laid-off. This was the fourth round of buyouts/lay-offs in the last two years for the paper.
“I’m excited about the future and, well, I guess Daddy’s Home!” Markstein said, in reference to the syndicated comic strip ‘Daddy’s Home‘ that he co-creates with Tony Rubino.
Markstein had done cartoons for the Journal Sentinel alongside fellow cartoonist Stuart Carlson for nearly 10 years until 2004, when he was reassigned to the design desk. Carlson was later forced to take a buyout in 2008, and according to Milwaukee Magazine, Markstein refused to provide local cartoons to fill the void.
Tribune Media Services (TMS) has partnered with media and technology consulting company VentureDNA to make its editorial cartoons available to iPhone users.
“We’re pleased to have joined forces with VentureDNA to bring iPhone users their daily dose of humor with our prize-winning editorial cartoonists,” Steve Tippie, TMS vice president/licensing and new market development, said in a statement. “ToonsWare is the perfect application to view, share and comment on favorite cartoons about the topics of the day.”
ToonsWare is currently available in the Apple iTunes App Store for $2.99 and features cartoons from Tribune cartoonists Chan Lowe, Dan Wasserman and Dana Summers, among others. The app also allows readers to share cartoons via e-mail, rate and comment on cartoons, search by topic and view biographies of cartoonists.
A full-length PBS Documentary on Paul Conrad is now available on YouTube [and notably, not broken up into 9 minute segments, but all of a piece]. “Paul Conrad: Drawing Fire,” features nearly 200 cartoons from the three-time Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, as well as interviews with the artist’s family, friends and colleagues.
PBS proudly declares that Conrad “epitomizes the fiercely independent voice that has been disappearing from American news media in recent years.” Conrad was lured to the Los Angeles Times by Otis Chandler in 1964, but left after Chandler relinquished the family’s day-to-day control of the paper in 1993. Today The Los Angeles Times, one of the top 10 largest newspapers in the country, does not have an editorial cartoonist on staff.
Catch the whole thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2-Ri74LWhA
The long-planned “Herblock!” exhibition opens October 13 in Washington, D.C.
The Library of Congress celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of political cartoonist Herbert Block, known to the world as Herblock, with a show that looks at his entire 72-year career, which began in 1929 under President Herbert Hoover and concluded in 2001 during the presidency of George W. Bush.
The exhibition, which features 82 original cartoon drawings selected from the Library’s Herb Block Collection, will illuminate Block the man, as well as his mastery of the art of the political cartoon.
The show runs from October to May 1, 2010, at the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., in D.C.
For the forthcoming 300th issue of The Comics Journal, out in October, publisher Gary Groth announc
ed a special series of interviews that included several AAEC members: “We paired established, influential creators with rising stars and asked them to talk about the changes the comics medium has been going through during the eventful 33 years of the Journal’s existence. Among the intergenerational dialogues to be overheard: Inflammatory muckraker Ted Rall and editorial cartoonist Matt Bors [and] super-popular Zits! cartoonist Jim Borgman and newly syndicated Knight Life stripper Keith Knight.”
At the end of July, a number of AAEC members made the trek to Comic-Con, the monstrous comic book-cum-pop culture convention held every year in San Diego.
On Sunday, July 26, Daryl Cagle moderated a panel of editorial cartoonists including Steve Breen of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the most recent Pulitzer Prize winner; Michael Ramirez of Investor’s Business Daily, the previous year’s Pulitzer winner; Jeff Koterba, nationally syndicated cartoonist for the Omaha World-Herald; Glenn McCoy, who draws the comic strip The Duplex, in addition to his nationally syndicated political cartoons; and Rich Moyer (animated editorial cartoons).
You can catch two of the vlogs Cagle posted of the event here: https://blog.cagle.com/daryl/2009/08/03/glenn-mccoys-san-diego-comic-con-presentation/
https://blog.cagle.com/daryl/2009/08/10/jeff-kotebra%e2%80%99s-san-diego-comic-con-presentation/
Also present was Rob Rogers, who was pitching both his own work and Pittsburgh’s Toonseum. Per his usual pithy self, Rogers posted a series of daily updates from the convention floor, blogging on the geeky madness that is Comic-Con. Here is his report from Saturday, July 25:
“There are … distinct types of fans that attend Comic-Con. I don’t have room to describe them all here in detail, but I will describe a few. First, the largest group are what I would call the ‘Man-Boy Fan Boys.’ They are grown men who suffer from arrested development, at least when it comes to their love of comics, cartoons, toys, video games, etc. I definitely fall into this category, although, unlike the worst of them, I moved out of my parents house a long time ago.
“The second group I’ll call the ‘Spacers.’ These are the ones who can’t get enough outer space fantasy. This group would include those obsessed with Star Wars, Star Trek … all the ‘Star’ franchises. Some would call them Trekkies, but I think it is much broader than that.
“Then, there are the ‘Furries’ and the ‘Ren Fairies.’ Furries (not my name) are folks who like to dress up in cartoon animal costumes, or are otherwise obsessed with those who do. Ren Fairies are those who dress up in costume and participate in historical reenactments at Renaissance Faires. Some are members of the Society of Creative Anachronism. This cartoon [above] was based on an ACTUAL conversation with one of the Ren Fairies at the table next to our ToonSeum booth.
“Comic-Con is awesome!”
You can catch the rest of Rob’s observations at https://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/robrogers/
—Sources: The Daily Cartoonist, Chicago Tribune, Rob Tornoe, E&P, Daryl Cagle
